Speaking about American literature, one can discuss it for many hours as the number of themes and concepts related to it is definitely enormous. The history of American literature of last centuries was created by people having completely different attitudes to the reality and the human society. Due to that incredible diversity, American literature remains a really unbounded field of research. Nevertheless, in this paper I would like to focus the attention on literature of the twentieth century, representing the image of the American West. With the beginning of the last century, famous writers started to address the problem of division into classes more often. In general, the new tendencies in the world of literature were connected to depicting the bitter truth about life. At the same time, the writers who created famous works touching upon the life in the West, were paying much attention to describing the environment. The abundance of beautiful descriptions of the nature coupled with limitless opportunities that are beyond the reach of common people make the majority of literary works of the twentieth century a combination of wonderful and tragic. The land itself can be called an independent character that interacts with the protagonists of the stories created in this period, and influences their decisions.
Having read the books that we discussed, I believe that it is obvious that American West itself presents a power that heavily influences the characters of famous books that appeared last century. For instance, in his autobiographical work “Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness” Edward Abbey describes his work as a ranger in the state of Utah. The book presents unique and thorough observations of nature, climatic environment, and the fauna of the place where the author was living. Describing his attitude to the place that he is living in, the author repeats that it is incredibly beautiful but still dangerous and undeveloped (Abbey 16). Thus, the mystery of the West and the beauty of its nature appear to be the things that make characters want to live there despite all the severities. Human relationships also seem to be affected by the described environment; the hard time makes poorer people of all nationalities unite whereas the richer ones keep playing power games. Thus, the severe conditions of the place contribute into shaping the unique mentality of the Westerners and their internal force. In the book written by Abbey, the desert also acts as a protagonist whose nature is quite ambiguous: it presents both a real object and a symbol of a cruel reality that nobody wants to notice. There is no doubt that the land is an independent character that interacts with the protagonist of the story and influences his attitudes to the present political and economical situation in the state. Living in the West, the author is so delighted with its unique nature that he starts to despise industrialization. To him, the attempts to combine nature and civilization appear to be a real crime; throughout the book, he becomes more concerned about this issue. To some extent, he sees the last outpost of the wilderness and wisdom in flora and fauna of the West. Thus, the nature of the American West and its rough conditions that are hard to survive in shape the inhabitants’ characters, and make their will and bodies stronger. Consequently, many characters of the books that we have read appear to be influenced by stunning beauty of the place and numerous challenges that it holds.
Discussing the books that describe the life of the Westerners, it is important to analyze the values that their characters are demonstrating. The book “Close Range: Wyoming Stories” by Annie Proulx helps the readers to understand the mentality of the Westerners better as it mainly focuses on relationships between people. This book is a collection of stories set in the countryside in Wyoming. In “Job History” Proulx touches upon a question of growing joblessness that becomes the primary problem for the protagonist whose name is Leeland (83). Despite an obvious tragicalness of the story, the author seems to sound quite reserved telling the reader about another misfortune of the protagonist. If we are to single out the values that are typical for the Westerners shown in these books, I would say that their behavior and attitudes often seem to be based on quite a controversial combination of carelessness at a young age, and an outstanding ambitiousness and desire to work hard in adulthood. What is more, the characters seem to demonstrate a desire to work together, and it means that common people in the West hold the principle of collectivity in estimation. It is quite possible that these values coupled with enormous staying power in the face of financial uncertainty remain typical for many modern Americans living in the West. Generally, the values demonstrated in the books that we have read do not seem to clash with the modern times.
The views that the writers of the twentieth century express in their books often seem to be based on their attitude to the environment or the relationships between the humanity and the nature. For instance, John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” shows tragical side of life of common people. The book is a fiction but author’s personal experience of the work in agricultural industry in the beginning of the twentieth century made a significant contribution to the story. The action is set in the state of California in the period of the Great Depression. George and his friend Lennie roam around the state looking for any job that will help them to improve their conditions of life. Failing to find a job again and again, the protagonists seem to become loosing any hope for the better life (Steinbeck 19). At last, they manage to get a job on a farm near Soledad. To some extent, the friends represent two opposites; George is very intelligent and prudent whereas Lennie possesses a real physical fortitude but also a mental deficiency. In the end of the story, Lennie kills the wife of the farm owner’s son because of the rage that he cannot control.
To some extent, this character can be regarded as a symbol of the little people who have no right to own their land, and this is why they can only work for the wealthier ones. As the author shows, the attempts to exploit the nature with help of the people experiencing hard times are very often destined to lead into trouble. Lennie is described as a man who pays much attention to his dreams that are not fated to come true because of his inability to answer for his wrong-doings. In fact, his behavior shows that common people put in so harsh conditions can start doing inappropriate things just to feel that they can do something as a mark of protest. The book is much more focused on relationships between the people than on those between the humanity and the nature; its tragicalness and the author’s desire to show life in the raw is opposed to more romantic views that have been popular earlier. Undoubtedly, the life in the West is often depicted as a real torture. In the novella “Legends of the Fall”, the author tells about three brothers who have to participate in the Great War (Harrison 18). Being urged to live in such terrible circumstances, each of them experiences his own tragedy, and only one of them manages to survive in this battle with the cruel world.
The books that are discussed above present only a few examples of the way that famous writers of the twentieth century saw the West and its severities. In their opinion, its nature is a power that distinguishes the stronger people from the weaker ones. The characters of these books tend to put a value upon mental strength and an ability to avoid giving up hope even in the worst situations. What is interesting is the fact that these traits seem to have been shaped by long years of development of the area, and these stories of the past still seem familiar to many Westerners. The West itself, as we can see from these books, is a place that makes people stronger and increases their self-reliance.
Works Cited
Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness. 1968. Touchstone, 1990.
Harrison, Jim. Legends of the Fall. 1978. Grove Press UK, 2016.
Proulx, Annie. Close Range: Wyoming Stories. Simon and Schuster, 1999.
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. 1937. Hamilton Books, 2016.